


water, earth (and maybe fire and air)

by stxrks



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-03 01:01:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19453153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stxrks/pseuds/stxrks
Summary: The timeline of how the Stark children discovered their various bending abilities.





	water, earth (and maybe fire and air)

Robb is only five years old when he first bends water. 

Cat’s drawing the bath water for him and he’s protesting that he doesn’t need a bath, as if he isn’t covered in three layers of mud from his earlier games with Jon and Theon, yelling and shaking his fists in protest. Cat isn’t listening, not in the mood to entertain his tantrums and instead continues to run the water, until it rises back up and splashes in her face. Robb quiets mid tantrum and stills in disbelief. 

Cat is drenched but she can’t find in her heart to be angry, not when the gift that she had longed so much for as a young girl ever since she first saw her father control the water around him, has come to her beloved son. The skill of water bending may have skipped her, but it has manifested in Robb and she can scarcely contain her joy. 

“Ma,” he says excitedly in all his five-year-old innocence and joy. “I’m a water bender.” 

She kisses his red curls in delight, and watches as he raises his trembling hand once again. The water rises again in a slightly shaky motion. His technique is a far cry from perfect, but there’s no doubt about what’s before her. 

Robb is a water bender. 

\--- 

Jon is eight years old when his bending abilities become apparent. 

He’s in the sitting room with his nose buried in a book, half watching as Robb entertains their younger siblings with multiple bubbles that swell to stupidly large sizes and burst into a vapour. Sansa claps in awe and Arya demands for bigger and better tricks, and even baby Bran who is only two years old giggles and claps his fists together. Jon can only imagine what it’s like to command that level of adoration. 

He sighs audibly and turns a page in his book. 

Robb hears his sigh and scowls. “You don’t have to be jealous,” he says loftily, a phrase Jon knows fine well Robb picked up from his parents. Jon has often heard the two fearing that Jon might be jealous of his brother’s bending abilities. 

He scowls back. “I’m not jealous.” 

Robb shrugs, evidently deciding it’s not worth his time to pick a proper fight. Instead he bends water from his bowl towards Jon where it hovers above Jon’s book. 

“Stop it Robb,” Jon warns. Robb grins devilishly and lowers his hands, causing the water to float a mere inch or two above Jon’s book. 

“Stop it!” Jon snaps again, slamming his book to the side. Immediately the candles in the room flicker out. 

He can hear Robb gasp, Sansa and Bran whimpering. 

I didn’t mean to do that, Jon thinks desperately, I need light. 

Almost immediately as the thought forms, a flicker of fire springs in the palms of his hand. It’s only a partial flame and offers minimal light, and Jon can just about make out his surroundings and the looks of shock on his family’s faces. Robb, Sansa and even Arya who never knows when to shut up are stunned into silence, and even Bran has stopped gurgling as if he knows something important has happened. 

“Jon,” Robb says strangely after several seconds of stunned silence. “I think you’re a firebender.” 

\--- 

The day after Jon conjures a flame into the palm of his hand, Arya approaches her father. 

“Can I do it too?” she demands, 

Her father looks at her. “Do what?” 

“Bend fire,” she says impatiently. “Like Jon.” 

Her father smiles fondly and tucks a stray hair behind her ear. “Jon is a firebender because his father before him was one,” he explains. “If you’re a bender, you will bend earth like me or water like your mother’s family.” 

Arya scowls. “I’d rather bend fire,” she tells him. 

He takes her outside, sits her down, and tells her to watch. Arya knows her father can bend, but she’s never seen him use his abilities like this before. She’s never seen rocks shoot out of the ground in quick succession, dirt and earth combined as it rumbles before her father. She can’t take her eyes off him. 

“Okay,” she concedes. “Earth is good too.” 

Her father smiles again. “Don’t get too excited,” he warns her. “Not everyone can be a bender.” 

“I can,” she decides. “I’m going to be the best earthbender in the world. 

Her father laughs and ruffles her hair much to her aggravation. “I believe it.” 

Arya stares at rocks for a week straight, trying to imitate her father’s movements, willing the them to move. For a week straight, nothing happens. 

Her father and Sansa come out to visit her in her attempts. “You might not even be a bender,” Sansa calls over to her with all the self-importance a six-year-old can muster. Arya scowls and whips around, prepared with a litany of insults to throw back at her sister but before she can shout them over, she’s distracted. The rocks around her have been raised into the air in a sweeping circular motion, as if in time with Arya turning. 

Arya exclaims in delight, and Sansa looks dumbfounded. Her look of shock quickly dissolves into squeals of protest as a fine layer of dirt quickly coats her new skirt. Arya laughs and catches her father’s eye. He’s shaking his head at her for targeting Sansa but there’s an unmistakable spark of joy in his eye. 

Arya beams. 

\--- 

Two years later, Sansa discovers her own ability to waterbend, in purely accidental circumstances. She had only meant to raise her arms to shield herself from one of Robb’s surprise attacks and instead had switched the water’s direction completely, causing it to splash right back in Robb’s face, who is too surprised to defend himself in time. 

Finally, Sansa thinks to herself and leaves behind a spluttering Robb to immediately seek out Arya. She’s practicing throwing rocks around in the courtyard, her technique having considerably improved in two years. Puddles left over from earlier rainstorms dot the ground. Sansa grins and strolls out to the courtyard, trying her best to look innocent. 

Arya smirks at her. “Careful,” she jeers. “You might get dirty.” 

Sansa smirks back. “And you might get wet,” she throws back, and has two glorious seconds to savour Arya’s confusion before the dirty puddle soaks her younger sister in the face. 

\--- 

Rickon is only two years old when he begins earthbending. 

Cat groans and ignores her husband’s delight. Not another one. 

Her home is officially a mad house, with five children of who can bend three different elements between them. She can’t count how many curtains Jon has accidentally singed, how much wooden furniture has fallen victim to Robb and Sansa’s poorly aimed waterbending. Arya is a whole other level of messiness, forever tracking dirt and mud all over the house. 

Cat sighs as her hoists Rickon up. Her youngest is more interested in the rocks that have started following his movements than he is in bedtime, and he’s willing to kick up a storm in the process. 

Cat looks over towards her second youngest, and her only non bending child. Bran hasn’t showed any sign of bending earth or water, and Cat thanks her lucky stars every day for that. She loves and treasures all her children and their various bending abilities, but she’s can’t lie to herself. It’s nice to have a normal child. 

\--- 

It isn’t until Bran is ten years old that Cat realizes just how wrong she had been. 

She’s dragged into the drawing room by Arya, who at only twelve years old, has the strength and grip of a much older earthbender. “Bran’s bending,” Arya had repeated in delight, over and over. 

Bran smiles at her nervously when she enters. “Do it again,” Arya demands of him and he complies. The water in Arya’s drinking glass floated in the air. 

Cat smiles and hugs her son. He’s a waterbender, just like so many Tullys before him. It’s not so bad. 

It isn’t until a year later when Bran bends earth, just like his father and siblings, that they realize. 

“Avatar Bran,” Arya says at dinner that night. (“Swallow your food before you talk,” Sansa hisses from across the table.) “It has a ring to it.” 

**Author's Note:**

> wholly inspired by the starkling discord love you guys xo


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